Anyone have any recommendations on what brand CDRs are the best? Longevity, quality, compatibility, archival quality, etc.

This isn't the recommendation that you were after, but try posting this in the consumer opinions forum..

Most people will recommend kodak golds, mitsui, TDK, varbatim/mitsubishi.

It all depends on what you want to use them for.
For example, a gold cd is useless with a playstation backup, but may be good for music. The best for PS backup has to be Verbatim. Dunno about music, but those "Precision" cds are going very cheap and reliable on SVP Communications site www.121cdr.co.uk
Only problem is they've no dual cases :(

Primarily for VCDs. Music and PC stuff is easily replaceable, but VCDs can be more difficult to replace.

All rounder Verbatim, others Presion, Datasafe Infinit depends on the use

Have a look here

www.xsct.co.uk

Yep, get the Verbatim DataLifePlus (the prices are pretty fair).

i used to swear by verbs,

but they wont play audio well on my cd player, yet cheaper disks do.

i think one of the allround best disks are the datasafe double protection. cheap and very reliable.

i have found that no matter what you get from the best verbatims to memorex that they scratch very easy and then are prone to failure. i found that black bottom disks work the best for everything because of the extra scratch protection. you can get 100 on ebay for $4o. they are a must for vcd,games and music

eamon7 - which black bottoms are you talking about... I swear by Verb Datalife Plus's, and yep, you're right, scratching is an issue. Of course, I alleviate the problem somewhat by simply taking care of handling and storing them....